


Priorities

by Ambrocean



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Chrobin Week 2016, Domestic, F/M, Family, Fluff, Morgan and Lucina, Post-Grima, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 15:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8253757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambrocean/pseuds/Ambrocean
Summary: Who wouldn't prefer swordplay to schoolwork and kisses to council meetings?





	

_“BINDING BLAAAAAAAAADE!”_

Fed up after a morning saturated with numbers, Owain took it upon himself to stage a revolt against arithmetic. What did it matter that he knew 1+1=11 and 2+3=23? It wasn’t his job to solve math’s problems!

“Young master Owain, I don’t want to have to repeat myself. Do be so kind as to sit in your seat and to remain there until you have completed your lesson for the day.” Miriel’s tone was cutting, and she wondered once again why she’d agreed to be the stand-in governess for the royal children. She now could see why their highnesses couldn’t get one to stay for longer than a couple months.

Paying her no heed, Morgan giggled into his palm, getting up to mimic his cousin’s gallant stance on top of his desk. Lucina, on the other hand, was completely tuned out from Owain’s theatrics, finding much more entertainment in the view of the young squires practicing drills outside the window. Scowling, she glanced back at the number of exercises she still had to do, and mulled over the injustice of it all. Why did Kjelle and Cynthia get to spend the day sparring while she was stuck inside with moldy books and inky fingers? It just wasn’t fair!

“Never! I shall never succumb to the cruel confines of a deadly desk!” Owain stood a bit taller, shoulders back as he brandished his quill, which had officially been dubbed his makeshift sword. “Fie, reading, writing, and arithmetic! A superior purpose calls; one my very blood yearns for!”

“I don’t doubt that,” the elder mage sighed. “However, if you continue to disobey me, I’m afraid I may have to resort to calling your father to the room…or perhaps Sir Frederick?”

With that, Owain’s poise dissipated. Pale blue eyes wide as saucers, he scrambled off his desk and out of the room, quill in the air. _“RETREATTTTT!”_

“Young master Owain!” Miriel slammed her book closed, and without so much as a glance in Lucina and Morgan’s direction, hurried after him.

“Now’s our chance!” Lucina perked up, already out of her seat. “I don’t think I can take another minute of this.”

Morgan said nothing in response as he climbed down. Instead, his hand dove into his pocket and quickly emerged with the frog he’d gathered from the pond earlier that morning. Throat pulsating,  its yellow glassy eyes became fixed on Lucina from its cupped nest in Morgan’s hands.

His older sister gave him a dirty look. “For Naga’s sake, get rid of that horrid thing!”

“Why?” Morgan smiled and stroked the frog’s spotted head with his index finger. “I think I’ll call him George.”

“ _Morgan_ ,” Lucina said in her most authoritative tone, hands on her hips. “Miriel’s going to be back any minute. Now do you want to escape or not?”

“Well, I guess so. But…”

“No buts,” Lucina interrupted. “Let’s go!”

And with that, the two siblings scurried out the door and down the hall, careful to not to slip on any of the carpets or to barrel into a podium bearing an expensive Valmese vase.

Their pace slowed to a tiptoe as they passed their mother’s office, catching sight of her slender form hunched over her desk. Concentrated as she appeared, quill rushing across the parchment as she murmured indistinctly to herself, nothing good would happen if they disturbed her.

“We cannot let them catch us,” Lucina hissed a reminder at her brother.

Morgan nodded so vigorously that he grew dizzy. “Absolutely not,” he agreed, right as his frog croaked. 

Lucina scowled in his direction. “For the last time, get rid of that stupid frog! You’re going to blow our cover!”

“No! I like him! He’s my friend!” Morgan protested loudly.

Lucina opened her mouth to argue, but had no chance to utter another word as a deeper voice resounded behind them.

“And what are you two up to?” Lucina and Morgan whipped their heads around toward the source, not knowing whether to feel relieved or anxious when they found Chrom standing there. “Are you done with your lessons already?”

Lucina stood frozen, no words or excuses coming to mind.

“No…” Morgan said in a small voice. Lucina elbowed him sharply.

Surprisingly, their father still showed no signs of anger as he interrogated them further. “I saw Miriel running down the hall after Owain about a minute ago. Did you see that as the perfect opportunity to escape?”

“Uh, yeah. Sort of,” Lucina said, looking away and scratching the back of her neck. “We were doing math, Father. _Math_. When are we ever going to use that?”

Chrom laughed. “You’d be surprised, Lucina.”

“I just wish I could be outside practicing with the other squires. See, I can use that,” Lucina explained.

Morgan’s hazel eyes widened, his own sentence overlapping his sister’s. “Please don’t tell Mother we escaped!”

“Very well,” Chrom chuckled, ruffling his son’s hair. He took pity on the two of them, remembering the days he was forced to sit through lessons and just wanted to be outside. “It’ll be our little secret just for today.” Cocking his head, he gestured to Morgan’s closed hands. “What’s that you have there?”

Smiling a little, the boy opened them. “His name is George.”

But before Morgan could elaborate more, the frog leapt from his grasp, eliciting a shriek from Lucina and causing their father the jump back in surprise.

“What’s going on out there?” Robin’s voice rang out from inside, sounding much less tolerant to shenanigans than Chrom had been.

Without missing a beat, Lucina and Morgan took off, leaving the Exalt alone with the frog. Chrom cursed under his breath as he dove for the amphibian; he knew that there would be more than a little problem if his wife laid eyes on it.

He finally managed to secure it in his pocket right as the door creaked open, chuckling to himself as he tried to recall the last time he’d caught a frog. Over a decade ago, at least. He only hoped it wouldn’t urinate in his pocket before he could get rid of it.

Robin poked her white-blonde head out, initially looking prepared to give a lecture. “Chrom?” Her expression quickly changed to one of confusion as she saw only her husband laughing outside the door with no children in sight. She stepped out into the hallway. “What in the gods’ names happened out here?”

“It was nothing, really.”

“Oh? I thought for sure I heard a scream.”

“Don’t concern yourself with it. It really wasn’t anything important.”

She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press the matter further, much to Chrom’s relief. “Well, keep it down. As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I really need to focus.” She sighed as she glanced forlornly back at her work.

“I’m sure you’re doing wonderful, love.” He grinned as he noted the rosy tone that had warmed Robin’s cheeks. “And you look really cute when you get annoyed, by the way.”

“You’re terrible,” was Robin’s only response as she shook her head, flushing an even deeper pink. “See you tonight.”

As she leaned in for a lingering kiss, the prank quickly formulated without warning in the back of Chrom’s mind. Disguising the gesture as one of affection, he inconspicuously reached into his pocket and as his arm worked its way around her, he dropped the frog down her tunic.

Registering the slimy, wriggling thing that had suddenly appeared down her back, Robin screamed and wrenched away from her husband’s embrace. “WHAT IN NAGA’S NAME?”

The Exalt was nearly doubled over laughing again as the poor frog finally made its way out of Robin’s cloak, probably more frightened than she was by the turn of events.

“I swear, there are times when you alone are worse than two children under ten!” Robin was bright red now, removing her cloak as fast as she could and shaking it out furiously.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Robin,” Chrom managed as he gasped for breath, not looking remorseful in the least.

His wife groaned. “Where did this creature even come from?” She wanted to know.

“I’m afraid I’m sworn to secrecy on that one.”

“Oh really? And where are the children, Chrom?”

“No idea.”

Robin eyed him incredulously, brow creased.

“What? It’s the truth!”

“I can’t believe you went to the trouble of catching a frog just so that you could get me with it.”

“Well, it’s not quite like–”

“What’s happened?” Frederick had come running upon hearing Robin’s tone of voice, tense and still in full armor from the training grounds. To Robin’s surprise, he had also brought Morgan and Lucina, holding one child in each hand by the collar. At this sight, the Exalt’s laughter came to a halt.

“Nothing, according to Chrom,” Robin said, putting her robe back on. She glanced back over at her husband with a smirk, waiting to see if he would confess to anything.

“Nothing?” Frederick’s eyes narrowed as he shifted his focus to Chrom. “Then why was milady screaming bloody murder?”

As if on cue, the spotted amphibian skittered back into sight, eliciting another scream from both Robin and Lucina.

“George!” Morgan’s expression brightened, but his collar remained firmly in the Great Knight’s iron grip when he tried to escape.

Lucina screamed again as the frog leapt in her direction. “Frogs give you warts! That’s what Owain told me!”

“They do?” Morgan looked at his hands in a panic, sniffling as his eyes started to glaze over with tears.

“I think Owain was just pulling your leg, dear,” Robin laughed, taking Morgan from Frederick’s hold, and rubbing soothing circles into his back. “Your father has been handling frogs his entire life and I can assure you that he has no warts anywhere on him.”

Chrom blushed at this statement, but the reassurance seemed to calm their daughter.

“Unbelievable.” Chrom heard Frederick mumble to himself as he set Lucina back down on the ground and caught the frog.

“In any event,” Robin continued, returning Morgan to the floor with a peck on the cheek. “It’s time you two got back to your lessons.”

“But Father said…”

“Go on, both of you,” Chrom said, giving the two of them a gentle push down the hall. “Your mother is right. We’ll practice swordplay later and George will still be in the pond when you finish.”

Lucina pouted and Morgan wiped the last of his tears away with his sleeve, but they obediently plodded back to the room with Frederick close in their wake.

“And speaking of duties, I will remind you that your presence is desired at the council meeting in two minutes, milord,” the Great Knight spoke up matter-of-factually. “Yours as well, milady.”

“Of course, Frederick. We’ll be on our way over soon,” Chrom said, momentarily regaining his professional demeanor.

With a dip of his head, Frederick turned back around as he continued down the hall with the children.

Robin rolled her eyes with another sigh as soon as he was out of earshot. “Would you care to explain just what that was all about?”

“I told you, it was nothing,” Chrom said. “The children escaped their lessons again. And Morgan happened to have a frog with him this time. That’s all.”

“And you didn’t scold them for escaping?” Robin asked. “You know that you can’t just indulge their every whim, love.”

Chrom didn’t answer, and instead tugged her back in for a kiss, similar to the one they’d shared earlier. Robin yelped in surprise, but accepted the gesture, arms circling around his shoulders.

“What was that for?” She asked, out of breath after they broke.  

“To apologize,” Chrom answered, eyes not leaving hers as he brushed a strand of hair from her face. “And to pick up where we left off.”

“But my work…” Robin protested when he leaned in again, palms pressed to his shoulders.

“It can wait.”

“This really isn’t the place to do this anyway…”

“We can go elsewhere.”

“Chrom…”

The gap was closed between the two of them again, this time with Robin staggering backwards against the wall.

Right when Robin feared things were getting just a little too frisky for a public place, she heard Frederick’s voice once again.

“Milord?”

The couple immediately separated, red in the face and frantically adjusting themselves as they avoided the Great Knight’s judgemental gaze.

“Er, yes! The council meeting, straight away!” Chrom managed, smoothing down his front.

Frederick simply stood there, showing no signs of leaving. “Of course, milord.”

“We’re on our way,” Robin said, trying to prompt him to leave as she put her hair back into place.

It wasn’t until the two of them finally made their way down the hall that Frederick finally left for the training grounds, only to find a very exasperated Miriel chasing a very rowdy Owain on the way.

He shook his head as he too went to join the pursuit.

The things he had to do for this family.

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I would have loved to have written something for every day of Chrobin week, it just was not humanly possible with my schedule.  
> Oddly enough, I started writing this in response to last year's prompt: "They take after you." With a few tweaks, it fit quite nicely in the gray area between "Morgan and Lucina" and "Domestic" from this year.  
> I estimate Lucina to be about 8/9 and Morgan to be 6/7, and this does take place in the new timeline post-Grima. Just wanted to clarify that. :)  
> Anyway, thank you for reading and feel free to leave a review with your thoughts!


End file.
